Is it Thanksgiving yet?! It sure feels like it after biting into these Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Cupcakes with dollops of toasted vanilla bean meringue on top. This recipe is up and ready just in time for blankets, cocoa, cupcakes, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!
Making Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Cupcakes
Let’s get into the process of making these babies! First off, preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Line a second pan with additional liners as this recipe makes about 12-14 cupcakes. Now onto the cupcake batter!
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, and allspice in a medium bowl and set aside.
Add the brown sugar, butter, and olive oil to the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the room temperature egg, pumpkin puree, sweet potato puree, and sour cream one at a time. Make sure to scrape the bowl between additions to ensure everything is well mixed.
Add the dry ingredients in two parts, mixing until just combined. Using a spoon or a small cookie scoop, add batter into each cupcake liner until it is halfway full. Bake the cupcakes until golden and puffed, and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean which should be about 16 minutes.
Allow cupcakes to cool completely before piping meringue on top of the cupcakes and then using a torch, lightly brown the meringue before enjoying!
Making Vanilla Bean Meringue
The process of making meringue is quite simple and takes technically only two ingredients! In this case, we are flavoring our meringue with vanilla bean so we’re technically using three ingredients total to create our fluffy meringue with the best of textures.
To make the meringue, add your sugar and egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer and place over a saucepan of boiling water. Make sure that your bowl is not touching the hot water! Your goal is to simply whisk the egg whites and sugar together over a gentle heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, then attach your bowl back to the standing mixer. If using a thermometer you should reach 165 degrees F before starting to whisk.
Whisk mixture starting at a low speed and gradually increase until soft peaks form and the mixture has completely cooled. Finally, add the vanilla and mix on low until combined. Set aside for decorating the cupcakes!
Assembling Cupcakes
Once you’ve prepared the baked cupcakes and meringue – it’s time to decorate! First off, pipe a large dollop of meringue on top of your completely cooled cupcakes. It’s important to make sure that your cupcakes are cooled so that the meringue is not heated by the residual heat of the cupcakes and ends up sliding off!
Torching your Vanilla Bean Meringue
Now… for my favorite part… the torching of the meringue! I like to use a torch similar to the one linked below. After turning it on, I very slowly approach each cupcake making sure to assess how much color the torch is creating on the meringue. After torching each cupcake slowly and evenly, you’re ready to enjoy!
Equipment Helpful for Cake Baking
Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted Vanilla Bean Meringue
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle and Whisk Attachment
- Spatula
- Bowl
- Whisk
- Spoon or Cookie Scoop
- Cupcake Pan
- Cupcake Liners
- Piping Bag & Tip
- Cooling Rack
- Small Blow Torch
Ingredients
Sweet Potato & Pumpkin Cupcakes
- 1 ½ Cups (187 g) All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Ground Cardamom
- ¼ tsp Ground Allspice
- 1 cup (220 g) Brown Sugar, packed
- ¼ Cup (57 g) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- ¼ Cup (56 g) Grapeseed or Canola Oil
- 1 Large Egg, room temperature
- ½ Cup (125 g) Pumpkin Puree
- ½ Cup (140 g) Sweet Potato Puree, Baked or roasted sweet potato, blended until smooth
- ¼ Cup (60 g) Sour Cream
Vanilla Bean Meringue
- 3 Egg Whites
- 1 Cup (200 g) Sugar, 1 Cup
- 1 Scraped Vanilla Bean or 2 Tsp Vanilla Paste
Instructions
Vanilla Bean Meringue
- Add your sugar and egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and place over a saucepan of boiling water. Make sure that your bowl is not touching the hot water! Your goal is to simply whisk the egg whites and sugar together over a gentle heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, then attach your bowl back to the standing mixer. If using a thermometer you should reach 165 degrees F.
- Whisk mixture starting at a low speed and gradually increase until soft peaks form and the mixture has completely cooled.
- Add vanilla, and mix on low until combined.
Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Line a second pan with 2 liners – this recipe makes about 14 cupcakes. Set aside for the time being.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and allspice in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Add the brown sugar, butter and olive oil in the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the room temperature egg, pumpkin puree, sweet potato puree and sour cream one at a time. Make sure to scrape the bowl inbetween additions to ensure everything is well mixed.
- Add the dry ingredients in two parts, mixing until just combined.
- Using a spoon or a small cookie scoop, add batter into each cupcake liner until it is halfway full. Bake the cupcakes until golden and puffed, and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean which should be about 16 minutes.
- Allow cupcakes to cool completely before piping meringue on top of the cupcakes and then using a torch, lightly brown the meringue before enjoying!
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